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Development of the Nordic-Baltic Market for Organic Food

This report contains the conclusions from the project "Development of the Nordic/Baltic Market for Organic Food" in which public authorities and NGO's from Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway and Sweden have participated. The objective of this project was to elaborate a joint project proposal in order to promote the development of the Nordic-Baltic market for organic products. The project identifies and describes a range of barriers for a market driven development of the organic sector, including lack of consumer awareness, deficient market data, different standards and labelling, lack of marketing channels, lack of processing and innovation and high prices. Against this background the project points out a range of potential cross-border activities, including an information campaign to raise awareness and induce consumers' trust in organic products, construction of a common information system on the rules and procedures, promotion of the EU-logo and national logos, collaboration between retail chains and representative organic organisations and finally alternative distribution channels. In order to enable the implementation of one or more of these potential activities the project has identified relevant funding opportunities. The most relevant funding opportunity has been identified as the EU promotion scheme (Commission Legislation (EC) 94/2002 of 18 January 2002), which is therefore described thoroughly.

Introduction

The organic market share of the total agricultural sector is still quite limited. Even for countries that holds the largest share of organic sales in the Nordic/Baltic region. Although currently a niche market, organic products is believed to have a very large potential for growth.